“You’re a troll, Milner. I kind of like that.”
Sam would have loved to start the game trolling, but he didn’t know enough about this new VR system to risk it, and so he thought hard about the class he would choose to start the game. All of the classes he liked were specialty classes, but which specialty did he prefer? How did he want to play the game? All out fighting? Ranged warfare? Blessings? Sam was thinking so hard that he was sure he would soon get a headache, if that were possible in a VR sim.
“Fuck it! I can’t stand here forever.”
He threw caution to the wind and selected the Cutthroat class like he initially wanted. The shadowy hood and all black gear looked so awesome on the character that he couldn’t help it. This class suited his playstyle the most too. He’d just have to get accustomed to the dodging really quickly. Hopefully this game had a robust parrying feature as well. Sam had counted on it after seeing the all black Deflector shield that the Cutthroat came with, same as in The Death Planes. He found it curious that the game didn’t let him choose a starting item, but he didn’t linger on the thought. He sighed out loud, finalized his choices, and waited for the game to start.
“All right, here we go!”
The creation menu disappeared and Sam was whisked away to the game’s opening cutscene.
3 Opening Cutscene
A voice echoed into Sam's ear, an English narrator with a Master’s degree in Epic. With an ancient and smoky voice, she told the tale of the beautifully rendered cutscenes. Sam kept quiet and watched on in awe at the game's beautiful and mysterious backstory.
“For time immemorial, the world had been covered in cold, stillness, and dark, suitable for only those ancient, eternal, and powerful: the dwellers of the deep. But then a chance occurrence happened—a small spark lit up the world—and it became the catalyst for an age of change.”
Sam couldn’t see anything at first, but heard the sounds of some sort of massive collision. After that, the dark world was suddenly brightened with a tiny flickering flame.
“The spark burned bright but only briefly, long enough for a courageous Dweller to seize it and take it into himself.”
A shadowy human like creature stepped out of the dark and grabbed the tiny flame, cradling the flame gently.
“This Dweller became Supreme and awakened the spark to bring the light of his new soul to the world. The other Dwellers scornfully referred to him as the Lightbringer and feared his brilliance. They banded together and challenged him, led by Straga of the deepest depths.”
In the fiery light, the Dwellers could be seen. They were all mostly amorphous or misshapen and long like the very shadows. Straga was one of the few that seemed to have a solid form and it was massive. The rotund giant was covered in spikes and had no eyes to speak of. His skin also seemed to shift as if covered in living mud.
“In defense against their great numbers, Supreme split his inner spark into two and created a son with the second half of the ceaseless soul flame. He named him Morningstar and together they fended off the assaults of the Eternal Dwellers.”
An army of the shadowy Dwellers seemed to be gathering in the dark depths. Way above them, Supreme could hardly be seen with all the light emanating from his body. Sam only saw his vague human shaped outline inside of a sun-like sphere of light. His son Morningstar was also glowing, but he wasn’t so bright that his features couldn’t be seen. He wore an ornate purple set of robes, along with golden rings on his wrists and ankles. He also had a pair of golden wings on his back.
“The brilliance of Supreme the Lightbringer and Morningstar the Son of Light brought form to the formless. In order to fathom this new world many Dwellers acquired the sight, but some refused to adapt and remained blind to this light and numb to this warmth.
“With their world and sensations affronted and with fear gathering in their midst, Straga and his Eternal Dwellers waged war on the two Lightbringers once and for all. In the battle, Supreme was struck down and consumed by his former brethren which spread his light and formed the first of the Great Beings from the now burned and destroyed bodies of the Dwellers.”
Supreme appeared to be much larger than Sam had initially thought. He was pierced by a score of massive spiked pillars. His body fell to the earth and was divided and eaten by several of the amorphous Dwellers, but soon after, each of the creature’s exploded in wild flames and where they had died, gigantic infants thrashed about in the carnage, crying.
“In his rage, Morningstar hurled a powerful bolt, formed of his own soul at Straga, slaying the ancient Dweller.”
The bolt was a massive golden spear of light and it pierced the shadowy giant like nothing, obliterating him and the Dwellers around him in an instant with an exploding wall of fire. Lava erupted from magma pools deep underground and bathed much of the stony land in molten rock.
“From the destruction came the advent of earthbound fire and mankind. The battlefield was cleared and the remaining Dwellers retreated or surrendered to the Son of Light.”
Morningstar sat on a rocky throne as many Dwellers waited in line to pay him homage. Some others slinked right back into the darkness, avoiding the light.
“Morningstar contained the deadly fire and used it to form a winged creature like himself, a beautiful ruby bird. The bird introduced itself as Phoenix and became Morningstar’s favorite pet.”
Phoenix was giant sized, just like Supreme and Morningstar. The inside of its colossal wings were solid gold, while the outside was a shimmering red. It bathed in the flames, seemingly thriving in them.
“Morningstar sought to gain favor and continued peace with his defeated foes, so he arranged to couple with an Eternal Dweller, and presented her with a gift. He chose Hystera, who was now the queen of the depths, and built her a castle. There, he presented her with Phoenix. Hystera sobbed at the sight of Phoenix and considered its mere presence an insult to the loss of her people, so she released it.”
Hystera was taller than Morningstar, thin, and had skin that was the deepest shade of black. She was one of the few Dwellers who actually had eyes. Hers were as dark as her skin with grey pupils. She had no hair to speak of, and inside of Morningstar’s castle she wore an ornate jade and gold headdress and matching gown. In her room, she opened the cage of the ruby bird and watched it fly out of the window, silver tears running down her face all the while.
“Phoenix was drawn to the presence of the newly formed humans who shared its kindred soul. It brought more fire to their souls and strengthened their wills. From here, man grew in number and capability. They marked the land with wooden and stone towns and worshipped the bird as their lord, Lord Phoenix.”
The progression of mankind was shown, from caves to towns. Phoenix then flew high over the comparatively small men and women, who were on the ground tilling the land. The humans then cut stones and erected monuments to the bird. The symbol for the bird was apparently a plus sign with the horizontal line elongated.
“Hystera gave birth to Abominations that plagued the world.”
It showed the Dweller queen giving birth to terrifying creatures that were curiously diverse from her, Morningstar, and one another. Some had claws, some had scales, or horns, or fur; some even had all of the above. All had eyes that glowed red, orange, or yellow with some kind of intense primal fire. The backdrop of the scene wasn’t the castle this time, but instead some place surrounded by black earth and magma. Sam wondered if she had maybe returned to her home deep underground.
“These children of Morningstar betrayed their father and sealed him away while using his power to conquer and spread their influence throughout the world.”
The Abominations had surrounded Morningstar by standing in a circle side-by-side. They each used some kind of sorcery, composed of gold and crimson light that converged over him and locked him in place. Morningstar screamed in agony as the strange light pierced his body and held him in place. His own brilliant light came out of his body in several streams and was absorbed by
every one of his terrifying brood.
“The Great Beings, possessors of souls of light, challenged the Abominations and were deadlocked with them until mankind joined the fight.”
The babies from before were now full-on giants clad in thickly armored plate mail with closed helmets. Four of the giant warriors were fighting a horde of smaller Abominations. Two of the warriors were slender and quick. They drove off their opponents with piercing lance thrusts and wide sweeps. Another of the warriors was bulkier and fought with a humongous greatsword and chopped down his opponents as if they were mere weeds in need of whacking. The final giant warrior bore two massive axes and swung them around as if they were daggers, cleaving all sorts of heads, arms, legs, and wings as he went. But it seemed like the more the warriors killed, the more Abominations would show and challenge them.
“With fire and steel, the men helped push the Abominations back and together with the Great Beings sealed them away in their subterranean dwellings.”
A vast human army gathered at the edge of the flaming battlefield and converged on the horde of Abominations. They looked like little mice compared to the other giant combatants, but they were a tenacious group. Many of the men climbed atop the Abominations and hacked away at their heads while others hacked away at other limbs. Some of the men used spellcraftes, pyromancies, bows, and javelins to fight from long range. A massive ballista was brought in and fired at a giant Abomination that had a goat’s head, hooves, claws, and wings. It breathed fire unto a group of human soldiers below it, until the giant wood and metal missile pierced its chest. Once the giant Abomination fell dead, the human soldiers and giant warriors drove the rest of the Abominations underground. The giants used boulders to block off the tunnels that led deep underground and a small group of robed humans chanted as a white mist enveloped the entrance to the tunnels to form a barrier.
“But when the time came to unseal Morningstar, the men instead chose to deceive the Great Beings and placed further seals to further lock away Morningstar so that he could not influence their world.”
The chanting humans, in their robes, created two mist barriers this time. The one closest to the sealed Morningstar was golden. The humans who created that barrier turned to dust as soon as it was done and were scattered to the winds. The second barrier was the same white as the one from the tunnels. Those sorcerers looked severely drained, but remained alive afterwards.
“Without their Lord, the Great Beings faded into obscurity, seeking respite from this new era. Only a few continued to interfere in the affairs of man.”
The battlefield from before was shown, only now it was quiet and empty. Wind blew the clothes of the piled human corpses.
“Now that man has come to power, the darkness is beginning to pervade and the strength of the fire is beginning to fade. Phoenix, who has given men the strength of ceaseless fire, has gone silent and disappeared. Mankind has long since forgotten why many of them rise again after they die. Was it a curse?”
Another big battle was shown, this time between two warring kingdoms of humans. Day and night passed rapidly, dwindling the combatants to just a few. Time slowed back down to real time, the battle winding down at night. Two small groups of knights remained, but as they clashed, fallen ally and enemy alike slowly rose up and rejoined the battle. Many of those who were resurrected attacked mindlessly and lumbered around like zombies, though some had just as much vigor as before.
“From the depths, the final remaining Abomination invaded. Once shunned by the rest, the final Abomination sought out true dark and bided its time to gather the power necessary to defeat the most powerful Great Beings. With their defeat, many of the Great Beings pledged fealty. Now together they guard over the power of the ceaseless fire and rule over the holy lands of Heimfall, where the cursed are sent to rot. These rulers are known as the Fire Bearers.”
A giant flaming pyre the size of a city was shown from the air. The camera zoomed down into the center of the fire and down to the bottom, where there had to have been thousands of piles of bones piled up. Tortured screams and ghastly wailing could be heard all around along with what Sam thought was a screech.
“Unable to escape this perpetual conflict through death, men finally see the true nature of their undying state and they seek to end it. To do that, champions set out to conquer the undead and snuff out the Fire Bearers. But is that what mankind truly wants?”
The screen faded to black.
4 Hard Ass
Sam’s viewpoint went from looking directly at his character, Sarem, to swiveling around to the back of him, then travelling inside his head until Sarem and Sam were one. It was like Sam had predicted, the simulation was a first person one.
Sam looked down at his digital hands and noticed that he was moving them. It was initially a weird sensation, like he had never had hands before in his life. The ones he was looking at weren’t his—well—now they were. He flexed his long dark fingers and heard the crunch of the supple leather when he balled his hand into a tight fist. The leather felt good, and so did the wind. A nice breeze was blowing on a relatively quiet night. There were no manmade sounds to be heard, only the sounds of tiny forest creatures. There were actually tiny spiders and crickets moving around on the forest floor seemingly alive in a nightly dance, just like in real life.
“This is sick!” Sam whispered to himself.
He couldn’t believe that such minute details were rendered inside of the game. It was almost indistinguishable from a real forest. He looked above, and through the trees could see some of the moon’s radiant glow. He wanted to see more, so he moved his feet for the first time. It was another funny sensation; a strange tingling travelled through his whole body. He moved to the middle of the clearing to look up at the gorgeous full moon. It was a much more beautiful sight than any moon he’d seen in real life. The hugeness of it, its purple tint, and the glow from it made it otherworldly and its mere sight made Sam frightful, yet excited for the journey that was to come. He let out a shaky breath in an effort to calm himself, and thought about his next plan of action. He wasn’t just some mere player. He still had a job to do. He had to remember to think of this like work, like every other game he’d playtested. At the moment, that seemed impossible, but he had to get over it.
He walked around in a circle to get accustomed to the walking. He stayed in the same area, so as not to rouse any enemies that might be nearby, and talked to himself.
“So my method is the same as always. I need to first find the bug. That requires extreme testing of the game’s systems or one of its features. I’ll need to even go outside the bounds of reason and explore every inch of the game that I can. I’ll have to test it and repeat the test to make sure that it’s a repeatable flaw. Either way, I’ll report what I find to the developers. They’ll check it out and let me know if they want me to test it further. Hopefully I can do this quickly and move on, so I can get five glitches before anyone else.”
Sam was satisfied with his method. He prepared to check his gear when he heard a voice that didn’t fit with anything else he’d seen in this world so far. The liveliness of her voice broke his concentration and immersion with the world.
“That’s a good method, tester number forty one ... Sam Nagai, is it?”
The woman sounded young, maybe close to Sam’s twenty-seven years as there was a hint of maturity in her tone.
“Who are you?” Sam asked.
“Oh sorry. I’m one of the level designers for this area, the Forest of Woe. Fun fact: it’s also called the Assassin’s Forest by many of the NPCs and Murderville by many of us on the design team. My name is Alex Madura,” she said, joviality in her tone.
“Nice to meet you, Alex. So this is a Planes game? The character creation and even the name of this area makes me think it is. Is it a sequel or a remake?” he asked.
“Sorry, Sam, at this stage of the game I’m not authorized to answer those kinds of questions.”
“That’s a bummer. But it’s kind
of obvious that this is that same sort of game.”
“There’s no harm in you making whatever speculations you want, Sam. I just can’t confirm or deny them,” she said playfully.
“Fair enough, Alex. I take it I’ll report whatever glitches I find to you?”
“Yes and I apologize for taking you out of the game’s atmosphere like this, but we do so early on to remind testers of their roles. As you can see, it’s easy to get lost in the game world and forget why you’re even here.”
Sam chuckled at the obvious truth of that.
“You guys definitely know your game. Well, thanks for the reminder.”
“No need to thank me, Sam. I know you already realized your goal before I contacted you. I heard you speak your plans for testing out loud. I’m only interrupting now to tell you my part in all this. I think it helps if we are on the same page as early as possible. It’ll make the rest of our communications go a lot smoother.”
The woman had really good reasoning, so Sam was all ears.
“So what’s your part?” he asked.
“Okay, so I’ll take it a step back and go over one of the parts of your own testing method. You actually don’t have to repeat any bugs you find yourself. Just report them as soon as you find them. I’ll take a look at the code, and if I think that it needs further testing I’ll let you know. And don’t worry, I’m a fast code reader. If anything needs repeating, I’ll know almost instantly.”
That was really good. Sam counted his blessings that he got a designer as efficient as Alex to report his bugs to. Seems this contest had a great element of luck involved too, since you didn’t know which designer you’d have helping you. Sam was sure that not all of them would be as good as this Alex seemed to be.
Hell's Glitch (LitRPG): Into a Dark Adventure Page 4
