But it had worked. Damian’s sword went spinning almost straight up in the air. All eyes followed the path of the sword as it went up and then back down. Jace and Damian looked at each other, their eyes narrowing.
The sword seemed to be falling back to Damian and the dark elf grinned. He started to hold his hand up to catch it when a primal scream surprised them as Diana barreled into the dark elf, knocking him to the ground.
Her attack hadn’t hurt Damian, he was immune to damage as the admin. But it had done it’s job. Jace stepped forward and caught the sword. Just as Damian pushed the shrieking woman off himself, Jace stepped forward.
“Goodbye Damian, rot in hell,” he said and stabbed forward with the sword. He had no idea if the sword would affect the admin account, but he was out of options.
He had just enough time to see Damian’s eyes go wide before the dark elf was engulfed in light and disappeared.
Chapter 54
Jace stared down at the spot where Damian had just been. There was no trace of him.
“Is he… dead?” Diana asked, sitting upright from where Damian had pushed her.
Reaching down a hand, he helped the older woman to her feet. Mika came to stand by him, putting her hand on his shoulder. He frowned. “No. Not dead. But if he was right, his character is gone. Wiped away.”
He looked down at the sword in his hand, the blade glowing and crackling with some sort of energy. If the blade was really what Damian claimed, it was the most dangerous thing in the game.
Finding that he wanted to get rid of the weapon, Jace suddenly found he wasn’t sure how to do that. He certainly didn’t want to leave it lying around in the off chance that Damian was somehow able to log back in. Was it safe to put into his inventory? Wasn’t that where Damian had pulled it from?
He closed his eyes and willed the item into his inventory, mentally flinching as he prepared to feel the sword disappear from his hand. Nothing happened. He opened his eyes and looked at the sword. It was still in his hand. He was about to curse when Mika spoke up.
“Does something seem… different to you?” Mika asked, looking around.
Diana and Jace both looked around, trying to figure out what she meant. Diana raised an eyebrow. “Is it me, or did things get really quiet in here?”
Jace listened. She was right. There was no sound. None at all. Before, there had been some ambient sounds and the low rumble of the volcano. Now, there was… nothing. Silence except for their own voices.
“That’s weird,” Jace said. “It’s like some sort of silence spell.”
Diana looked at the glowing sword. “Is it that thing?”
Jace shrugged. “Possibly. I can’t seem to put it in my inventory, so I have to hold on to it for now.”
“Just get rid of it!” Diana said, her face contorting into a mask of disgust.
“I can’t,” Jace shook his head. “If we leave it somewhere, Damian could come back and find it. I’m not about to make it easy for him.”
“But isn’t he… deleted?” Diana asked.
“Theoretically,” Jace said. “But he was logged in as admin. It might have prevented him from being deleted.”
Mika gave him a puzzled look. “Damian said that, and you did too. What exactly is admin?”
“Admin is a special account. It basically controls all the functionality of the game and has access to everything. And I mean: everything,” he explained. “When you’re in as admin, you can literally go in and change just about any aspect of the game and nothing can harm you.”
“So, Damian could have turned us all into dung beetles?” Diana asked. “Why didn’t he just do that?”
Jace chuckled and shook his head. “Even when you’re logged in as admin, you’re still bound by the rules of the game - the code. He would have had a special menu that allowed him to do anything within the normal rules of the game, like change a player race or class or level. But he couldn’t change the code itself.”
“So why didn’t he do that?” Mika asked.
“I’m not sure.” Jace shrugged and looked down at the sword in his hand. “I guess he wanted us gone permanently. The game rules wouldn’t allow that, so that must be why he brought this thing.”
Diana shuddered and even Mika’s normally happy face looked sober. Jace understood. It wasn’t every day you found out someone wanted to wipe you from existence - and had very nearly done so.
“Let’s get out of here,” he told them and began walking towards the tunnel. Neither girl objected and followed him up the tunnel and out into the island.
As they walked up the tunnel, he took a deep breath and decided to check on Luna. Jace hadn’t been sure whether he had been able to dismiss her in time or if Damian had hit her with the sword. With a heavy heart, he went to bring up his HUD to try and summon her.
Nothing happened. His HUD didn’t appear. He stopped, nearly causing Mika and Diana to run into him.
“What?” Mika asked. “Is something wrong?”
Jace tried to open his HUD again. There was nothing. It was just like when he tried putting the sword in his inventory. It just didn’t work. He turned to face the girls. “Can either of you open your HUDs?”
Both girls stared into space for a moment before looking at him, their faces alarmed. “No. What does that mean?”
Jace had a suspicion but he wasn’t sure and didn’t want to share until he had more proof. “I’m not sure yet. Let’s get up to the surface.”
The group hurried to the entrance of the lava tube. As they stepped out of the mouth of the tunnel, Jace immediately realized his fears were well placed. Something was terribly wrong.
He could see the airship that had dropped off Damian. It was still hovering in the same place. Only, it wasn’t hovering. It was frozen in place. The propellor-like engines of the airship weren’t moving. Nothing was moving.
A terrible feeling began to come over Jace. He glanced out to the ocean and his blood went cold. The ocean wasn’t moving. The waves were frozen as well. Everything except them was frozen. He felt both girls move closer to him.
“Jace?” Diana murmured, her voice small and afraid. “What’s going on? Why isn’t anything moving?”
Even Mika had moved closer to him, her hand trembling as she gripped his arm. They were both afraid. So was Jace. He turned around to face them.
“I think,” he started and then stopped as his voice cracked. He swallowed and tooth another breath. “I think we broke the game.”
“Broke the game?” Mika said, wrinkling her forehead. “How?”
“I used the sword on Damian,” Jace explained and they both nodded. “While he was logged in with the admin account.”
The girls both looked at him with confused looks, not understanding what he was getting at. Jace bit and lip and tried to explain it in layman's terms.”
“The admin account doesn’t just give carte blanche access in and of itself,” he told them. “The reason you have so much power when using the admin account is because it runs the entire game.”
This time the girls' looks grew concerned. He could see them starting to connect the dots, so he continued. “When I used the sword on Damian, it didn’t just destroy his avatar, it destroyed the admin account.”
“And…” Mika swallowed, glancing at the frozen airship. “If the admin account controls the game…”
“... then what’s controlling it now?” Diana finished, her eyes darting around the island.
Jace nodded. “Exactly. I think that’s the reason everything is frozen. Without the admin account, the game doesn’t work.”
“What about us?” Mika said, grabbing Jace more tightly. “Are we going to freeze?”
Diana looked to him as well, her gaze almost pleading. “Are we?”
“No,” Jace replied, hoping he was right. “A different account runs the players, at least, it runs their normal movements and functions. It’s a safety precaution to prevent players from hacking the system.”
“So, we won’t freeze,” Diana repeated, and put a hand on her chest. “If I were still alive, I think I’d be having a heart attack about now.”
“What do we do?” Mika asked.
He looked around at the frozen landscape around them. He frowned. “Nothing. There’s nothing we can do.”
The girls exchanged looks and Diana opened her mouth to speak but Jace held up a hand. “There’s nothing we can do but wait. Whatever needs to be done, WorldCog will have to do it.”
Jace told them that, but he didn’t know how they would replace the admin account. Not if what Damian had said was true. If the virus that the sword created did really seek out and wipe out all traces of something, even from the backups, he had no idea how they would restore the game.
And if they couldn’t restore the admin account, then what? What would they do to the game? Would they shut it down? What would that mean for Jace and the others, who were a part of the game now?
Suddenly Jace dropped to his knees, a piercing pain in his head causing him to lose his balance. He squeezed his eyes against the pain, feeling them tear up. And then, just like that, it was gone. He blinked and saw a red blinking alert icon. He also saw that the girls were on their knees as well, hands on their temples, faces contorted in pain.
“What the heck was that?” Diana gasped, blinking.
“System message, I think,” Jace croaked, still blinking the tears away.
“Are they trying to make our heads explode?!” Diana growled, wiping the tears from her eyes.
“Our sensation level is at max,” he muttered. “To most players it was probably like a pinch.”
“That was some pinch,” Mika said, massaging the sides of her head.
Mentally clicking on the blinking red icon, Jace saw floating text in his vision. It wasn’t quite like his HUD, but he could read it.
Adventurers of VEIL Online,
We are aware of the technical issues you are experiencing with the world. We are also aware that some of you cannot access your HUD and therefore cannot log out. Please know your safety is our top priority and we are working diligently to find a solution.
Until then, we recommend that everyone stay where they are and do not try to interact with the world, as this could have unforeseen consequences.
We will get back to you shortly.
Thank you!
WorldCog Support
Jace finished reading the message and then looked at the girls. Within moments, they were glancing at him.
“What does that mean, Jace?” Diana demanded.
“It means I was right,” Jace replied. “The admin account must have been deleted and that caused all of this.”
“Regular players are stuck in the game and can’t log out?” Mika asked.
He nodded. “That makes sense. We can’t access our HUDs. It stands to reason other players can’t access theirs. And if they can’t get to their HUDs, they can’t log out.”
“Now what?” Diana asked. “We just wait until they get back to us with another migraine message?”
Jace chuckled despite himself. Migraine message was a very apt way of putting those system message alerts. “I don’t see that we have much of a choice. All we can do at this point is wait.”
Chapter 55
Jace had no idea how long they waited. Like everything else in the game, his gnomish timepiece had stopped working, the hands frozen at the instant he destroyed the admin account.
They’d walked around the island, looking for any signs of movement but there was none. Even the smoke from the volcano was frozen. The whole thing was eerie and surreal. It was like walking around in a painting.
After what seemed like hours, they’d been knocked to their knees by another migraine message.
Adventurers of VEIL Online,
We have identified the issue causing the current problems with the game. Because of the severity of the issue and risk to player safety, we are forced to take drastic steps to correct it.
In 30 minutes, we will be doing a complete system restore. When this happens, you may experience drastic change in your environment as your avatar is returned to a previous state at a previous location. This is the normal and expected behavior of the system restore.
Once you return to your previous location, please log out immediately. We will begin to deploy emergency patches after the restore and will force logout at that time. All users should log off prior to this to prevent unforeseen issues.
Thank you for your understanding during these difficult times.
WorldCog Support
“What does this mean?” Diana asked after reading the message.
“I’m not really sure,” Jace replied, still trying to get his head around it himself. To his knowledge, a full system restore had never been done before. At least, not since the game was in beta test. In fact, the game had never even been down. That was one of the big selling points of VEIL Online, it was up all the time.
“What will happen to us when they do this restore thing?” Diana asked.
“We’ll probably just reappear wherever we were when they restore from,” Jace told her. “Like teleporting or respawning.”
“Oh,” Diana sighed in relief. “That’s not too bad.”
“What about the emergency patches?” Mika asked.
Jace shrugged. “I’m not sure. It might just be a patch to prevent this from happening again. Maybe they’ll create a secondary admin account and have the game run as a different account. Honestly, that’s what they should have done before.”
The girls lapsed into silence as they waited. After what seemed like longer than 30 minutes, the world suddenly went white. In the next instant, Jace was back in the volcano chamber with his back against the ice wall. Pain shot through their heads again but this time Jace was able to stay on his feet.
Adventurers of VEIL Online,
System restore has been completed. HUD access should be restored. Please log out now!
Emergency patch deployment will begin in 5 minutes. Forced log out will occur in 4 minutes 30 seconds.
Thank you for your patience.
WorldCog Support
He read the message before noticing he still carried the sword. That was strange. He would have thought the restore would have removed it from him. Once more he tried to put it into his inventory and this time, it disappeared. Checking his inventory, he saw the sword icon, but next to it was just the world NULL.
His headache gone, he scanned the room. Several feet in front of him, where Damian had been, was a large orange tabby cat. It was Luna. Without thinking, Jace rushed forward and wrapped his arms around the big cat. “Luna!”
The cat looked around in confusion but began purring as he hugged her and rubbed under her chin. The girls came over and gave Luna attention as well, the big cat soaking it all in.
Jace suddenly raised his head. “Do you hear that?”
The girls both perked up and listened. Mika stood up and looked around. “The sounds are back.”
Diana looked at him and wrinkled her nose. “The sulfur smell is back too. That, at least, I could have done without.”
Looking around, Jace frowned. “No Charlena or Mordred. And no Damian either.”
“No big loss,” Diana said.
“Does this mean things are back to normal?” Mika asked.
“Let’s go find out,” he said and gave Luna one more chin scratch before standing up and starting towards the cave entrance.
The group walked up the lava tube to the outside and immediately heard the sound of waves crashing against the island, as well as the whir of the airship’s engines as it hovered a hundred foot above them. He looked at his gnomish timepiece and the second hand was moving again. Things did seem like they were back to normal.
“We’re okay?” Diana asked from behind him.
“Yes, I think we are,” he replied, grinning. “We just need to wait for the ship.”
“What about that one?” Diana said and pointed
at the airship.
Jace looked up at the airship floating above them. They still had some money. They could probably afford to pay them to get them all back to Nynymmost. He looked down at his timepiece. The patches were supposed to start any time now and he wasn’t sure if it would be safe to be in a flying ship while they were running some sort of emergency patch. There was no telling what it might affect.
He turned to Diana to explain the dangers of doing that during an emergency patch, only to find that Diana wasn’t there. He looked around. She was nowhere in sight. Then he noticed Mika was gone as well.
“Mika! Diana!” he called out. Were they hiding from him? It seemed an odd time to play a joke on him, but maybe Mika put Diana up to it.
There was no answer and Jace’s heart did a flip flop. He yelled out louder, more urgency in his voice. “Mika! Diana!”
He glanced all around. There weren't any hiding spots in the immediate area and Jace was beginning to panic. “MIKA! DIANA!”
Once again, there was no answer he spun to Luna. “Luna, can you find Mika and Diana?”
Luna walked over to the spot where Jace had last seen Diana standing. The cat sniffed around for a moment before looking up at Jace. “Gone.”
Luna loped over to the spot where Mika had been looking at the ocean and sniffed there for a long moment before turning her head to Jace. “Mika gone.”
“Gone?” Jace said in disbelief. “How can they be gone?”
“MIKA!” he yelled out. “DIANA!”
There was no reply. Jace retraced their steps back into the volcanic chamber but there was no sign of them. Running back out, he searched the entire island before finally giving up. They were just gone. Walking back to the spot where he’d last seen them, he collapsed down on the hard ground and waited.
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