The rest of the week went by quickly and without any incident. When Kai sat on the train home on Friday night, he almost wished he could work over the weekend. His job, although risky, was so much better than anything he could do in his free time in his shitty apartment. Besides, it was only when he was around the campus that he got a chance to catch a glimpse of her.
Back home, he remembered that he had promised to join Stan in TSOSA that weekend and go on a dragon hunt with the guild. Well, it would at least keep him occupied.
He had no idea that he would get much more than he had bargained for.
***
Stan looked over the moon at seeing Kai online the next day. The Dark Elf girl teleported into his estate, charged up to him and embraced him into a hug.
“So good to see you, mate! I was worried something might have happened to you… or maybe that we’re not good enough for you anymore.”
“What?” Kai was genuinely surprised. “Why would you think so? You should know me better than that.”
“Yeah, I know… sorry,” Stan said.
It was only then that he noticed the change in Kai.
Stan straightened up and looked at his friend in surprise. “You got yourself a new avatar.”
Kai nodded. “Like it?”
He had woken up early today, at the same time as he usually would to go to work. Not sure what to do with himself, he had logged into the game and decided to create a new appearance for himself. Following what everyone at Helltek did and the example of his avatar there, he designed an appearance based on his true self.
No longer an overly tall and muscular Viking, Kai’s new avatar looked very much like him – just an idealized version, of course.
“You look a bit like Keanu Reeves when he was young. Not bad,” his friend said slowly, studying him. “Why did you do it?”
“Not sure,” Kai replied. “I guess I wanted to look similar to my avatar at Helltek. I spend so much time in his skin now. It somehow felt right.”
“Is this how you look IRL?”
Kai laughed. “I wish. It’s an idealized version of me.”
Stan shrugged. “That’s what VR is for, isn’t it? If we wanted to look like our ugly asses, we might as well stay in reality.”
Kai nodded, yet his thoughts drifted to Alice, who, in his opinion, looked even better in real life than her avatar did.
“So, are you ready for the big hunt, mate?” Stan asked, yanking Kai out of his daydream.
“Sure am!”
“Good! As it starts in thirty minutes and everyone in the guild expects you to be there. They think you’re a hero, you know?”
Kai laughed. “Why would they think so… wait, did you tell them I’m with the Cyber Squad now?”
The Dark Elf gracefully jumped onto the battlement and gave Kai an innocent shrug.
“Maybe…” He paused. “Nothing wrong with that, eh? Why shouldn’t they know, I figured. It’s not like it’s a secret or anything.”
“I guess so,” Kai said.
“LifeSupport in particular was very interested when she found out.”
“Really? Why?”
“No clue. Maybe she wants to apply too? You know what an excellent player she is. And she’s such a better guild leader than Red, I’m telling you. Literally everyone in the guild will be there today! It’s gonna be the biggest event we’ve ever had. We’ll burn through this dragon wanker like nothing. Ah, I can’t wait for the loot!”
As the two friends were sharing their excitement about the upcoming guild event, they paid Kai’s NPC wife no attention at all.
Freya stood in the courtyard, her blonde hair flowing in the wind, her unnaturally pretty eyes narrowed. She watched the two in silence.
Watching and listening. As she always did.
***
“How’s the new DLC?” Kai asked as they teleported into the area.
“It only dropped Thursday night, so I haven’t played it much yet. But so far it looks awesome. A couple of new monsters, two new dungeons, and, of course, the dragons.”
“Have you seen one?”
“Yeah, they’re flying around the map and come down on you and eat you at any time. Not a pleasant experience.”
Kai laughed. “Did you manage to be eaten already? Within less than 24 hours?”
“Shut up…”
Kai laughed more as they materialized into the teleport point of the new area. As the landscape unfolded in front of him, he fell silent, however. This was absolutely breathtaking!
The level designers had outdone themselves in creating a fantastic world full of mountains, ravines, canyons – and active volcanos. The scene was dimmed in reddish light, emanating from the glowing lava slowly flowing down the slopes and reflected by the foggy sky. The music took on a dramatic and foreboding tone, indicating that this was dangerous territory.
In fact, the new area was for high-level players only. It wasn’t that no one below level 300 was allowed to enter it. The game was an open world with no set boundaries. But low-level players wouldn’t survive an encounter with any creature roaming these plains, even if it was only a lava rat.
Looking around, Kai felt excited. “This is gorgeous!”
“Wait until you see the dragons! I’ve never seen a dragon so well animated!”
“Did you acknowledge that before or after it ate you alive?”
“Wanker.”
Stan made a fake pouting face and Kai laughed. As they approached a huge group of people, he noticed the slight smell of burned wood and glowing coal in the air. Such little details made an atmosphere even more believable. Looking around, he wondered if the DLC had come with many glitches. Known shippable, as he now knew, was the developer’s code phrase for screwing players up right after release. Although he also knew that it could only be minor stuff, otherwise a game wouldn’t pass the quality control checks. He made a mental note to ask Topher if TSOTA was tested by Helltek. If so, maybe he could apply for testing it once he reached a higher level. On the other hand, he really liked his teammates and knew that he could consider himself lucky that they welcomed him so warmly in their midst. He hoped he would stay part of this team for as long as possible.
Easily two dozen players had come together on a plateau overlooking a canyon filled with lava. Kai recognized the gamer tags of most of them. It was his old guild, which had apparently gained some new members during his absence to compensate for the ones who had ‘left’.
Before teleporting here, Kai had asked Stan about Red, Cloudgirl and the others who had been injured by the Guardian almost three weeks ago. Apparently no one had heard anything about any of them ever since – and no one seemed to care.
Kai found that shocking. But he also knew more than the ordinary players out there. They didn’t know how bad it could get in VR. In his short time at Helltek, he had learned enough to have nightmares or to never want to enter VR again. And yet, here he was.
However, he was certain that the accident with the Guardian was an isolated incident. The chances that something like that would happen again in the same game were minimal. And surely the devs had done everything to improve the safety in the game. After all, dead people were bad for business.
Thinking everything through in detail, he was convinced that the people affected by the glitch the other day were either dead or gravely injured. Again, he wondered if he could open the console in this game if he wanted.
Theoretically, it should be possible, right?
“Hey, Kai,” LifeSupport said, greeting him in the calm assertive way that was typical for her. “Glad you could join us.”
“I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it,” he replied.
Her sorceress avatar was dressed in the usual white-glowing robes, and the snake head that decorated her staff moved as if it were alive.
She smiled. “And I would have hated to do this without you, Kai. All of us owe you so much. You deserve to be part of this event. It will be… unforgettable.”
LifeSupport4You has sent you a group invite. Accept?
Y/N
Kai accepted and found himself in a group of twelve, which included LifeSupport and Stan. The rest of the guild had grouped up in two more parties.
Instead of the usual group chat channel, Kai was automatically connected to the guild channel. That way, they could all communicate and coordinate the attack.
“Ok, folks,” LifeSupport said. “Mount up and let’s go!”
Kai summoned his mount. Today he had picked a flame elemental to fit the landscape. It was a premium item he had bought a while back and never used. But today’s endeavor was the perfect occasion to show it off. Most mounts were premium items players had to buy for real money. Such items were similar to when people showed off designer labels on their clothes in real life.
Kai realized that his first paycheck from Helltek was coming up and wondered what he should do with the money. His income wasn’t enough to move into a better apartment, so he would probably spend it on some more fashionable real-life clothes and some premium items for the game. It wasn’t worth saving up for a new place anyway since his plan was to reach Level Two as soon as possible and leave his current shithole for a better and more exciting life on the Helltek campus.
The whole army rode through breathtaking canyons, over steep slopes and down narrow mountain paths along rivers of glowing lava. Kai could feel the heat coming from those red-glowing fire-rivers. Unless you played as a Dark Elf, who had 100% fire resistance by default as a race, falling into those lava streams would result in a massive amount of damage and certain death if the player wasn’t able to escape the flaming trap within a few seconds.
“Are we going to discuss mechanics?” someone in the guild chat asked.
“There’s not much to discuss,” LifeSupport said calmly. “We go in and kill it.”
“Bloody heck, yeah!” Stan said.
“We have two tanks in each party, which makes six in total. Two will take on the dragon, and the rest will focus on the adds. The six healers, including myself, will spread out and keep everyone alive, and the DPSs do what DPSs do best,” Life said as they closed in on a mountain top surrounded by lava. “The area is brand new, and not many people have had much experience with those dragons yet. The one we’re taking on is the world boss in this region, the strongest dragon in the entire game – and, so far, unbeaten.”
Some people murmured with excitement. This was a dream for every guild. To be the first ones to accomplish something like this.
“I would assume he has a similar mechanic to all dragons in the game. He flies up, he lands, smashing everyone who is in proximity, he uses his wings to create wind that will kick you off your feet, and, of course, he spews fire.”
“Piece of cake,” Stan said, and someone in the group laughed nervously.
It was known that dragons were the toughest enemies the game had to offer. Even the smaller, low-level ones were extremely difficult to kill, and the one they were about to challenge was the king of dragons. What made it even more difficult was the fact that the next spawn point was a several-minute ride away. If someone fell, their comrades needed to help them up before the revive window timer ran out.
Entering challenge area. Maximum player capacity: 36
That was the right amount for three full parties and was the exact number Kai’s guild had brought along. Looking at the stats of the people in his group, Kai saw that LifeSupport had summoned only the best players the guild had to offer, if not the best the game had to offer. The lowest level was 588, and Kai knew the guy. He was an excellent tank who had put a lot of time and money into his gear.
They were as prepared for the challenge as anyone ever could be.
Kai felt excitement and anticipation building in his stomach. For the first time in days, he forgot about Alice.
The guild entered the plateau, which was set up like an arena, with cliffs on one side and a glowing lava stream on the other. And, in the middle, waited the ‘challenge’.
“Fuck me sideways…” Stan whispered next to Kai. “What is this? Godzilla?”
The comparison was legit. As they closed in, the dragon, who was sleeping, first jerked his head up, opening two huge, red-glowing, malicious eyes. Then he slowly rose to his full height, revealing that he had the size of a four-story building.
A tag appeared above his head, introducing the monster.
Baldurian
Dragon King
10000000/10000000
Its body was pitch black and covered in shiny scales that protected Baldurian from his head to the tip of his long, muscular tail, which ended in a claw and was covered with spikes, each the size of a grown man. Stretching himself, the Dragon King revealed massive wings.
Kai grinned. “Godzilla can’t fly. This asshole can.”
“Health of ten mill? They can’t be bloody serious,” Stan groaned.
It would take a long time to take the monster down, even for a team of 36 high-level players.
Kai couldn’t wait for the battle to start. It was going to be epic.
But then he stiffened in his saddle.
Out of the corner of his eye, he had seen movement. If that was what he thought it was…
No, no… It couldn’t be. What are the chances? Unless…
Kai turned his head to his left sharply and his eyes widened.
“Shit…” he murmured.
The cliffs confining the arena on the left side were glitched. Not just a little bit but massively.
The surface flickered, showing pixels and grid beams for fractions of a second. Like a wave spreading, the phenomenon moved along the whole cliff from one end to the other. The clouds in the sky froze like in a still image as the flickering wave reached the dragon. Everything happened so fast that the others hadn’t even noticed something was off. And if they had, they didn’t think anything of it.
But Kai had seen it.
This was a glitch of massive proportions. It was impossible for something like that to have passed QA. Someone was tampering with the code.
“Retreat!” Kai shouted, trying to make his voice sound steady and not show the panic he felt. “Turn around and leave the area!”
Several people turned toward him in surprise.
“Huh? What are you talking about? Why?” someone asked.
Kai didn’t have time to explain. “RUN! Now!!”
But it was too late.
The Dragon King rose up on his back legs and began flapping his gigantic wings, which were the size of yacht sails.
The effect was immediate. Wind of the strength and speed of a hurricane hit the players and threw them all off their mounts. Before anyone realized what was going on, the dragon opened his gigantic maw and let out a bone-shaking roar. It was so loud that even the rocks in the cliffs trembled. A second later, avalanches cascaded down everywhere – and the biggest one blocked the ravine that was the only exit from the arena.
Kai remembered what his teammates at Cyber Squad had said when he had told them the story of how the incident with the giant spider went down: that it had been no coincidence, no simple glitch caused by a game engine or code malfunction. It had been a deliberate attack.
There’s some scary shit out there, he heard Marco’s voice repeat in his head.
Kai jumped up and looked around. There had to be something he could do!
The spider had been bad, but this winged monster would grill everyone within seconds before he devoured them. And if their bodies perceived it as real… Kai felt his knees go weak, imagining how it would feel when those razor-sharp teeth the size of pikes crunched his bones.
Or anyone’s.
All 36 people would die.
He remembered Topher’s exact words on his first day at Helltek:
By entering our system earlier, the console clearance has been added to your neuro-plant automatically. It’s a tiny but highly encrypted piece of code. Every game will automatically recognize this sequence and give you cons
ole access.
It had been coded into his neuro-plant. And his neuro-plant was always the same, no matter if he entered VR from a pod at Helltek or when jacking in from home. Right?
There was only one way, and he had to try it. It was now or never.
OPEN CONSOLE
He thought the command in the exact same way as Topher had taught him.
And…
It worked!
Kai could hardly believe what was happening when he saw how his game HUD disappeared to be replaced by the tester HUD and the console.
He could have cheered in happiness, but he knew he had to focus now. Opening the console meant nothing in itself.
He started typing into the console, using the virtual keyboard that had automatically appeared at his fingers.
>tester_emegency_team76B.
That was an emergency code that every tester at Helltek could use if the shit really hit the fan. He wasn’t on the Helltek servers, so he had no idea if it would actually work or not, but it was worth a try. Now the next step.
>enter_dev_mode
Kai blinked in surprise.
He had been hoping that that would work, but when it actually did, he was stunned for a second. This was still the same world, the same game. Yet at the same time, it wasn’t.
Slowly, he turned around, taking everything in with awe. The world around him had frozen. Other players, the dragon, the sky, the lava streams. It almost felt as if he was standing in the midst of a 3D painting.
Next to him, he saw Stan, frozen in time, as well as the rest of the crew, who had been scattered around the whole arena after the storm the dragon had unleashed with his wings. Baldurian himself stood in the center of the place on all fours. His long neck and tail were stretched out straight, and so were his wings at his sides. Clearly this was a T-pose for non-humanoid NPCs.
He was surrounded by dozens of smaller NPCs, some of which looked like wyverns, some like lizards, and others like humanoid lizardmen. They all were lined up in T-poses like toy soldiers. None of them had been visible when Kai entered the console, so he assumed that they would be spawned eventually. But they were already present in the sandbox, of course, including their pathfinding and the trigger points.
Cyber Squad - Level 1: A Gamelit/LitRPG Lite Cyberpunk Adventure Page 28