by N H Paxton
I looked at the door to my office again, then decided to ward it from the outside. It would be terrible if I were to accidentally blow myself up. Again.
I pushed through the immense doors, then let them slam behind me. I turned, staring.
I looked over the door and chose three wards for it.
An extremely bright flash of light and a series of loud clicks emanated from the door itself, forcing me to look away and clench my eyes tightly closed.
When I looked back, three runic circles appeared in an interlocking, nested ring around the center of the door, constantly rotating and shifting. One was red, one green, and one blue. They were Minor Explosion, Minor Gale Force, and Minor Locking. Pleased, I turned to the main hall of the workshop, where I had laid out all of the workers’ furniture.
They were in neat rows, maximizing efficiency while providing sufficient space to move. I walked between the empty rows of workstations, noting that there was a considerable lack of internal storage for the building, before arriving at the main hall door. It was a simple thing made of wood.
It had to go.
I selected it through the guild interface, then swapped it out for the same heavy steel doors that protected my office. I looked through the selection of wards again and chose four instead of three, replacing Minor Locking with Minor Sealing and Minor Silencing.
A flash of light and heavy click and clang noises preceded the appearance of the runic circles. The rings, now red, green, blue, and white, circled one another the same way they did with the ones on my door, nested within one another.
I nodded as I finished the job, making sure to accept the changes that were made.
“Did not even drain Spirit.” I scratched at my chin, the stubble there itching slightly.
I looked at my construction points, then looked at the status of the main hall. I had enough CP left to provide a chair for every workstation or to begin redoing my apartment. I tilted my head and ran through the options.
Were this Russia, back on Earth, I wouldn’t have hesitated to improve my own life over that of my colleagues and coworkers.
But this wasn’t Earth. And I was no longer that Vlad. Here I was a warrior for Justice, for the good of the common people, no longer a slave to the heathen gods of Greed, Wealth, and Power.
I stepped back into the workshop and built a chair for every single worktable. After I finished, I found I had just enough CP left over for a few ingredient racks, which I dispersed at relatively even intervals along the long side walls.
“Is good,” I whispered to myself as I looked at my clock. It read 23:49.
The day was almost over, but there was something I needed to do before it completely ended.
I quickly penned a message to Almaz-Antev, preparing to lie yet again.
<<<>>>
Personal Message – VN Missive 03
Almaz-Antev control,
Vlad Nardoir reporting on current situation within Yunnam. Apologies for the late report. I have been working on gathering detailed information on the war effort within and without.
Regarding the war effort within Yunnam
The forces that the treasonous Jack commands are powerful, including well over two thousand ground troops, mostly Travelers. The siege capacity of the army is significant, consisting of two hundred or greater weapons of considerable power. Most of these weapons are mobile and capable of being dismantled at a moment’s notice. A direct assault is not wise at this time.
Several of these items are capable of breaching walls greater in thickness and power than Rowanheath’s. Jack truly has powerful allies working for his efforts, though I am lacking their names due to my limited influence within his inner circle.
Regarding the war effort outside
Jack has been moving resources to a new staging base well outside of Yunnam in the north in an effort to take control of an Imperial stronghold there. The name has not been provided to me, but I am aware of their movements. I cannot, at this time, inform upon the name of the location where the resources are being stored, but it has been under the cover of darkness and with the careful use of greater portal magics.
End of report.
-Vlad Nardoir
<<<>>>
I looked over the message again, hoping they would take the bait and perhaps reduce their threats against Yunnam.
I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, holding my breath as I sent the message. It blinked away into the abyss of the game universe.
“Is done then,” I said as I exhaled sharply, the air slightly whistling through my lips.
Perhaps now you are owed a rest. A voice came from behind me, and I spun quickly, prepared to defend myself.
“You should rest. I’ll watch the guild house.” Mathias, or rather the physical incarnation of Gamma, stood before me.
There was a gentle smile on his shadowy face as he leaned against the wall next to the newly warded door.
“Still have something to be done. Need to assign officers.” I pulled up the guild page again and went through the menus until I found a place to assign officers to the guild.
I had in mind who I wanted to assign, and I began in earnest.
As head of Enchanting, I chose Reif. He would make a fine head of Enchanting, given his natural aptitude and can-do spirit.
As head of Alchemy, I selected Shindla. She was an excellent choice as she had command over the apprentices and was easy to get along with.
And as head of Smithing, though I knew little about him aside from his considerable efforts for the Crimson Alliance and his skill with smithing, I chose Forge.
With that complete, I nodded to Gamma, who nodded in return, and I trudged up the short stairway to my apartment.
Arriving in the comfort of my own room, I plopped myself on the simple sofa that sat in a small forward living area. It was turned at an angle so as to face the small window.
“Has been long few days,” I said as I pulled a book from my bag, the one that had been completely blank before.
I thumbed the cover open and found it was now littered with paragraphs and words, chapters and images. I glanced back at the front cover, noticing that the image that was originally there had changed entirely.
Where once it had been just a black leather cover with some words, now it had a detailed lithograph of a man standing in a black robe, wind blowing it back away from his legs. His hands were outstretched, and a blast of light was erupting from his open palms. His hair was blown back by the force of the blast, and on the receiving end of the attack was an enormous multi-eyed monster with tentacles and slavering jaws.
The title read The Efforts of the Final Keeper and His Journey into Darkness.
I flipped through the pages, reading the adventures I had just been on. The actions we had all taken were the same, though our names were different. In place of my name was Alvinoth Razeline. A smile pulled at my eyes as I continued to read.
Alvinoth and his crew of guardians had retired to a location in the Barren Sands, a three-hour journey from the village of Estulia. It was described as a cavern containing a vast and enormous city. The city was powered from below by geothermal generators that stretched deep into the earth, and water flowed through the aqueducts beneath it through powerful pumps and a complicated system of sluice gates.
At one point, the book described a sword, formed entirely of Aetheric Energy, hidden so deeply underground that it would take years to find it through normal excavation techniques.
The sword was described as a switch that would reactivate an ancient world, though I was more immediately interested in the portal that was described in the book.
Deep within the bowels of the city, beneath stone, beneath earth, beneath sand, sleeps a cavern obscure and closed, buried by time. Therein lies the portal where Alvinoth and his crew disappeared for hours at a time, returning to the city to rest, appearing to be exhausted from a perilous journey. It lies dormant, awaiting the day when the rightful key is brought to bear aga
inst the might of a powerful defensive ward.
The Barren Sands? That was out west. I made a mental note and continued to read.
With the assistance of a powerful Alchemic Engineer, whose name was requested not to be recorded, Alvinoth and his intrepid crew constructed the Vault of Souls.
I assumed, based on Alvinoth’s discussion with me previously, that the Alchemic Engineer in this annotation was me.
Now, Alvinoth is missing, presumed dead, and a new Keeper has arisen to take his place.
“Alvinoth not dead, just biding time.” I chuckled as I continued to read.
Vlad has begun his epic journey into the Heart of Darkness. Having taken up three pieces of the Keeper’s Mantle and secured his place as the Last Keeper of the Vault, his journey has only just begun.
Deep in the heart of the Barren Sands, a city stands, derelict and broken, beneath the stone of the earth. It calls to him, and he hears the call. What will he decide to do with the life he leads now being his own?
The next page was completely blank, and so was every page thereafter.
I snapped the book closed, resting it on my lap as I hung my head back and stared at the ceiling of my apartment. I searched the stone and wood construction for an answer, for some kind of direction.
The decision was really quite simple. I would need to go to the Barren Sands. I would gather my party, my Ebenguard, and I would go.
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Looking for more Viridian Gate Online, and need it right this minute? Check out: Firebrand—part of the new Viridian Gate Online Expanded Universe! Or keep reading to take a sneak peek.
NEW WORLDS GET NEW kings, and that’s exactly what Abby thinks she’s found in her boss’ hacked code.
With a cataclysmic asteroid careening toward Earth, the VRMMORPG project Viridian Gate Online has become more than just a game, and Abby thinks her boss, Robert Osmark, wants to be more than just its founding father.
Now, Abby holds a hacked key to the kingdom that could earn her a punishment worse than death. To uncover the secret that drug lords and corrupt politicians paid millions for, Abby must dive into the game she helped create and team up with one of its AI creations. It’s a race against the clock as she tries to discover what’s hidden in the secret code before Osmark can crown himself ruler over all that remains of humanity.
From Debut Author J.D. Astra and James A. Hunter—author of Viridian Gate Online, Rogue Dungeon, and War God's Mantle—comes an epic new entry into the Expanded Universe of Viridian Gate Online that you won't want to put down!
Viridian Gate Online: Firebrand
ONE: Apocalypse Hacking
THE CLICKS AND CLACKS of my keystrokes reverberating off the empty chairs and standing desks at Osmark Tech were the only sounds, aside from the hammering of my heart. I’d been afraid before, working for Osmark, but never this scared. If I was right, they would do much worse than kill me for what I was about to commit.
My cursor lingered over the “deploy to prod” button. Under normal working hours, my fresh lines of code would’ve been peer-reviewed, sent through the sanity checker, unit tested, then deployed to staging. But eight months straight of crunch coupled with the impending doom of the planet left everyone eager to get to their capsules when Osmark dismissed us not an hour before.
I glanced around the large open space one more time to ensure everyone had in fact gone, my heart still jackhammering away. My finger trembled as I pressed and held the left-click down. I could still back out, forget what I’d read, forget I had seen what Osmark had planned.
“No one else is going to stop him. You must figure out what these ‘scrolls of allegiance’ are, and why so many high-rolling wretches paid out the wazoo for them,” I reminded myself, then inhaled deeply.
“Plus, you spent your entire overtime bonus check sending Jack that capsule. You’re gonna need something more than just the end of the world to break the ice when you meet up again, and you know how much Jack loves a good dungeon crawl. If that’s what this is. Who knows what billionaire drug dealers pay millions for in a virtual world? It could be full of godmode codes that somehow subvert our anti-cheating protocols.”
My hand curled to a ball as I retracted my finger, doing the undoable. The screen read, “Committing new code to production. Estimated Completion —> 280 seconds.”
The building trembled at the sound of a muffled crash, accompanied by terrified shouts, and my gaze shot past the screen to the fading light outside. It had been a while since I took more than a fleeting glance out a window, a few days at least. Most of us had elected to stay indefinitely at Osmark Tech since the global announcement of 213 Astraea weeks ago, as it was just safer here.
I walked to the massive UV-protected glass framed by columns of wide-leafed plants that hadn’t been watered in weeks and looked down the eight stories to the streets below.
Chaos. That was the only word to describe it. Someone had driven a truck through the screaming mob, trying to ram down the doors of Osmark Technologies, but they had failed. A fiery, smoking wreck lay at the foot of our building, and civilians scrambled to get out of blast range.
When Osmark ordered security improvements for the front desk a few months ago, reinforcing the walls and windows of the bottom floors, I thought it was just because of the recent mass shootings, to protect us from something like that. Not something like this. Not trying to protect us from desperate cries for salvation.
213 Astraea, nine miles of pure destruction, was what they were terrified of. A mass of rock and ice carving a path through space on a collision course with our little speck of paradise: Earth. I was scared too, but less so. I knew I had a chamber waiting in the basement where I would hopefully transition into the game I’d been helping develop for the last four years. A lifeboat for humanity. Viridian Gate Online.
A lifeboat that had cost me six precious months with my father and being there for his dying breath. It’s critical, Osmark had said, life altering. I wish he’d told us all the truth sooner—it would make resenting him for missing my father’s funeral a little harder. But no. Osmark was a deplorable man and a terrifying boss. He’d known about Astraea for months and refused to tell us until he realized DevOps wouldn’t complete until it was too late. He told us a few weeks before the global announcement, some kind of incentive to work harder.
Still, I chose to trade the last minutes of my father’s life for work. Osmark had needed me, but if I had left, even for one day to see my father into the ground, he would’ve made sure no one needed me. I would’ve been blacklisted to the tech industry, my career and sole source of income destroyed.
If I’d known then there wouldn’t be any other sources of income today, I would’ve gone to see him, at least one last time. To hell with Osmark, he would’ve taken me back. We had been desperate for Senior Systems Architects for months since the last three abandoned the game at the news of Astraea. The excuses didn’t make me feel much better, but now that we all ha
d somewhere safe at the end of the world, I was less upset about my choice.
Plus, I had another choice now and a new purpose. I was going to discover Osmark’s plan with these in-game “scrolls_of_allegiance” and end his reign here, before it could transfer into the game. He would never control anyone like he did at Osmark Tech, never again.
I took one last glance below and mourned the loss of so much life. They wouldn’t get in, not until I and the other employees transitioned into the game, and even then, there were only four hundred capsules they could use. In a day or two, a security team would run a raffle and bring in one thousand two hundred people from the screaming mob. With the transition taking up to seventy-two hours, a little under twelve days left until Astraea hit, and a one in six chance of dying instead of transitioning, we could only save about twelve hundred lives by reusing our capsules. A few less, if we counted the technicians who had the gut-churning job of removing the corpses from the capsules and cleaning them for another occupant.
My watch buzzed, and I turned the face toward me. “Deploy Complete” read the email title. I jogged past the desks full of half-drank coffee cups, plates with pizza crusts, and empty packets of Skittles. My computer screen came to life at my touch, and I checked the full deploy log. “Warning: error in (NullObjectReference-CaCoCa_Scroll) - Line 241.”
The pounding in my chest dropped to the pit of my stomach.
“You have got to be shitting me.”
I pulled up the console, fingers dancing across the keyboard like a drunkard’s ballet; violent and clumsy. No, no, no. This can’t be happening. Not now! I checked my watch again: 5:28. I had approximately thirty minutes to get to the Integration Room: our mass grave. I needed to watch this push through to completion. There was no way I would go into V.G.O. not knowing if the code was actually delivered.
Line 241... the line referencing the in-game object [Aleixo_Carrera-Scroll_of_Allegiance.OBJ]. How is that possible? The object doesn’t exist yet? I traced the lines of code backwards through mentions and discovered the culprit.